Remembering the fallen: IEDs claimed most Canadian casualties

Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News07.07.2011

Pallbearers carry the casket of Sgt. Martin Goudreault of Sudbury, Ont., to a waiting military aircraft at Kandahar Airfiield, Afghanistan June 8, 2010. The 35-year-old sapper from 1 Combat Engineer Regiment became the 147th Canadian soldier to die in Afghanistan when he was killed by a homemade landmine while on a foot patrol.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan — Canada's combat role in Kandahar ended Thursday with a death toll of 154 men and three women soldiers, and four Canadian civilians.

About 25,000 Canadian soldiers, sailors and air personnel have served in Afghanistan in groups of between 2,500 and nearly 4,000 troops at a time, doing tours of between six months and year. A new training mission that will eventually number 950 advisers and training staff began two months ago in Kabul.

All but a handful of the Canadians to have been killed in Afghanistan died in Kandahar. Of the 157 military deaths, 137 were combat casualties. The other 20 died in what the military describes as "non-hostile incidents."

The figures were tabulated using data from icasualties.org, which keeps a running tally on all deaths of coalition forces in Afghanistan, and from Canadian military sources.

Of those 20 non-combat deaths, 11 were vehicle and helicopter accidents, six may have been suicides, two may have been the result of criminal negligence on the part of others soldiers involved in gun play and a training explosion involving a claymore mine. One death was of natural causes while a soldier was on leave in Canada.

Of the six suspected suicides, four could be related to relationships that had gone badly sour either before or during the deployment. Only one of the suspected suicides was in a combat unit. The others were support troops who seldom if ever operated "outside the wire."

Ninety-eight of Canada's 137 combat deaths were the result of attacks made with homemade landmines, usually buried under roads but also on foot paths and in the walls of compounds and trees. Such attacks with improvised explosive devices began to pick up in the spring of 2007, after the Taliban had been badly beaten by two Canadian battle groups in open fighting in the summer and fall of 2006 that mainly took place in Panjwaii District.

Only 12 Canadians died in firefights or from enemy gunfire.

Nine of the Canadians died in Afghanistan as the result of attacks by suicide bombers. Suicide attacks happened mostly near the beginning of the combat mission that started in 2006, before the Taliban found that it was easier and less costly to them to plant improvised explosive devices.

Five Canadians, including the first four deaths in Kandahar in April 2002, were the result of what NATO calls "blue on blue" or friendly-fire incidents involving errant fire from U.S. aircraft.

Other Canadians deaths were caused by mortar attacks, rocket fire and rocket-propelled grenade attacks including one in which a Canadian was killed when the helicopter he was in crashed.

Starting in 2006, 36 Canadians died. Thirty or more Canadians died in the following three years. As the Taliban lost virtually all of the important ground that it held in Kandahar in 2009 and 2010 the death toll began to diminish.

Sixteen Canadians died in 2010 and three died this year. As the U.S. troop surge took hold and Canada was able to concentrate almost its entire battle group in Panjwaii from last fall, the percentage of Canadian deaths plummeted about 80 per cent.

Four civilians were also killed: A diplomat, two aid workers and a journalist. One was killed by a suicide bomber, two died in an ambush, and one was killed by a homemade landmine.

As in all wars, infantry units suffered by far the most casualties. The Edmonton and Shilo, Man.-based Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry lost 43 soldiers. The Royal Canadian Regiment, which is based in Petawawa, Ont., and Gagetown, N.B., has 31 deaths. The Valcartier, Que.-based Royal 22e Regiment, which had fewer tours in Afghanistan, lost 17 soldiers.

Combat engineers and medics who work closely with front-line troops also suffered a disproportionate number of casualties.

All but two of the 157 deaths were soldiers serving in the Canadian army. One air force photo technician and one navy diver also died.

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Remembering the fallen: IEDs claimed most Canadian casualties

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